Topic: Media Research Center
A March 21 MRC CyberAlert item by Brent Baker (taken from a NewsBusters post) is headlined, "CBS Castigates McCain Staffer for Accurate Obama/Wright Video." Baker claims that the video in question "simply intersperses clips of Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright," then bashes CBS for "twist[ing] Obama into a victim, a task made easier by the feckless McCain campaign."
In fact, as TPM describes it, the video -- created by an official at the Salem Radio Network, syndicator of such conservative hosts as Bill Bennett, Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved -- "incendiary" and "racially-charged" and "uses the controversial words of Barack Obama's pastor to tar Obama as unpatriotic." The video also contains footage of Malcolm X, who has nothing to do with this presidential campaign.
How is that "accurate"? Baker doesn't say.
And what is the "feckless" thing McCain's did that Baker is fretting about? It suspended the staffer who promoted the video on a Twitter feed; according to a McCain official, "We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy."
Why is Baker ashamed of a Republican trying to hold his campaign to a higher standard? He doesn't explain that, either.
